Monday, June 20, 2005

Godzilla vs Mothra

That piece on the anti-same-sex anything types in the Times gnaws on me. It is honestly easier and far, far more pleasant to pretend that there can be reconciliation with those who presently profess such intense hatred for homosexuals that they would sacrifice rights, fairness and reason to punish them.

I guess I know better. The Article 8/Mass Resistance folk and their counterparts outside of Massachusetts are not rational and continue to deny how emotional they are.

Those chilling catchphrase:

It's only common sense (as in marriage = one man/one woman).

No one wants to discriminate (except let's make sure we deny these gays anything).

I'm only trying to be reasonable (and any other position deserves my disdain and slander).

I hate the sin but love the sinner (as long as I can make his or her life miserable and inferior to mine).

keep coming from the mouths, publications and Web pages of the anti-gay-right folk. It may be that they tell themselves and each other these things so often that they actually eventually believe they are being rational.

Having run around similar bushes many times, I suppose it is safest to look to the antidotes to the antis. In such struggles as the 1960s civil-rights times, two things worked in concert with the force of law.

Continuing to out-campaign and outvote the clods.

Bring ridicule to bear.

The first is the most obvious. At least here in Massachusetts, the Dark Side is a shrinking minority. There are more among the public and legislature who are in favor of equal rights. There is no reason for it not to continue that way, so long as the pressure from the positive side stays strong and remembers that the anti folk are unrelenting.

For the second, we should not forget how important culture is to perceived reality. From my own experiences in the South in the 60s and 70s, I found that nothing startled a racist out of his hateful little world than finding his rants laughed at by his peers. When a bigot in a bar or church picnic finds others making fun of his hate speech, that makes him think and shut up like nothing else.

We nice folk were raised not to make fun of people. The exception should always be for the hateful. Don't ignore them. Don't start a fight. Ridicule them. Let others around know how wrong and just how stupid they are being. A snicker is often more powerful than a punch.

This is like politicians with voter polls. When the culture, the people, move beyond the basest minds and emotions, we can get past the lowest of us. They are dirty. We need to leave them in the dust.

As the Black folk used to say down South, it's time to tear the rag off the bush.